Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market

Rating:
Summary: Good little crime thriller; spectacular DVD
Review: The only aspect of Max Allan Collins' previous movie thrillers that betrayed their low-budget origins was the fact that they were shot on videotape instead of film. Here, however, the very premise of the movie ingeniously embraces the fact that the medium employed is video. Specifically, "Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market" has as its central conceit the notion that "found footage" from various sources- principally store surveillance cameras and local news reports- was assembled and edited to tell the dramatic story of a convenience store robbery and hostage situation in a small Iowa town. In other words, as writer and director Collins freely admits, he used the "Blair Witch" mock documentary/found footage technique, only this time in the service of a crime thriller instead of a horror movie. The result is a pretty entertaining little film that, at 72 minutes, doesn't permit its central gimmick of seeing most of the action through mini-mart security cameras overstay its welcome. The neat thing about this DVD, though, is that the movie itself is only half the fun. There are loads of extras, including (but not limited to!) the following: three separate commentary tracks by Mr. Collins, his actors, and his technical people, respectively; an audiobook version of "Inconvenience Store", the original Collins short story that inspired the film; a complete "Ms. Tree" comic book adventure, as Mr. Collins' "Ms. Tree" detective character (originally created for the comics) was the protagonist in the previously-noted short story; trailers to "Real Time" and previous Collins films "Mommy" and "Mommy II"; and an ambitious multi-angle feature that allows restless viewers to change camera views at will (switching from one "security camera" to another) while watching the movie. So, in short, this DVD is recommended for the gritty, clever movie, but especially recommended for fans of Mr. Collins' novels, movies, and comics work, as the various supplementary materials give the viewer a wealth of archival material, fascinating anecdotes, and other background information about Mr. Collins and his work. And, oh yes, you can't beat the price.

Rating:
Summary: Good little crime thriller; spectacular DVD
Review: The only aspect of Max Allan Collins' previous movie thrillers that betrayed their low-budget origins was the fact that they were shot on videotape instead of film. Here, however, the very premise of the movie ingeniously embraces the fact that the medium employed is video. Specifically, "Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market" has as its central conceit the notion that "found footage" from various sources- principally store surveillance cameras and local news reports- was assembled and edited to tell the dramatic story of a convenience store robbery and hostage situation in a small Iowa town. In other words, as writer and director Collins freely admits, he used the "Blair Witch" mock documentary/found footage technique, only this time in the service of a crime thriller instead of a horror movie. The result is a pretty entertaining little film that, at 72 minutes, doesn't permit its central gimmick of seeing most of the action through mini-mart security cameras overstay its welcome. The neat thing about this DVD, though, is that the movie itself is only half the fun. There are loads of extras, including (but not limited to!) the following: three separate commentary tracks by Mr. Collins, his actors, and his technical people, respectively; an audiobook version of "Inconvenience Store", the original Collins short story that inspired the film; a complete "Ms. Tree" comic book adventure, as Mr. Collins' "Ms. Tree" detective character (originally created for the comics) was the protagonist in the previously-noted short story; trailers to "Real Time" and previous Collins films "Mommy" and "Mommy II"; and an ambitious multi-angle feature that allows restless viewers to change camera views at will (switching from one "security camera" to another) while watching the movie. So, in short, this DVD is recommended for the gritty, clever movie, but especially recommended for fans of Mr. Collins' novels, movies, and comics work, as the various supplementary materials give the viewer a wealth of archival material, fascinating anecdotes, and other background information about Mr. Collins and his work. And, oh yes, you can't beat the price.

Rating:
Summary: A robbery gone bad; a DVD gone good!
Review: Though distributed by the schlockmeisters at Troma (the studio behind the Toxic Avenger series of films), Real Time is anything but. Based on short fiction ("Inconvenience Store") starring Collins' Ms. Tree character, it is the story of a convenience store robbery gone awry. Former "scream queen" Brinke Stevens (Nightmare Sisters) stars as the pregnant woman with a secret who gets caught up in the fracas but manages to keep a cool head.

As a movie, it's quite good. The set is realistic (it was built from scratch!), the performances are solid (with only one actor going over the top), and director Collins often uses split-screen technologies to give us multiple views of the action. That the events were reported to have been filmed by surveillance cameras allows him to use grainy black and white and four-camera blocks to showcase the action from different perspectives simultaneously.

But it is as a DVD that Real Time really shines. You may or may not know that your DVD player has an option for multi-angle viewing because most DVDs do not take advantage of this. Even those that do only showcase it in a minor way (the only one I can even think of off the top of my head is the Beastie Boys DVD Video Anthology from the Criterion Collection). What this feature does is allow the viewer to switch views during playback, and Real Time takes true advantage of this feature, allowing an alternate view of every scene in the movie. At anytime during the movie, you can press the Angle button on your remote and get a different camera angle of the same scene you're watching. It allows you to be the director, in a limited sense; you could watch the movie over and over and never the same way twice.

But that's not all that awaits the savvy Real Time viewer. There are also several commentaries and interviews by the director and various cast and crew members as well as an audio version of the source story, an onscreen graphic novel of another story in the Ms. Tree canon (although you'll have to have a pretty big screen to be able to read the lettering), auditions, and deleted scenes. Also, unlike most DVDs, Collins has taken real care with the cast and crew bios, offering a look at the careers of most of the participants, not just the "stars." The creativity and imagination shown in the design and execution of Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market are sorely lacking in most DVD presentations of films by major studios. Buy a copy (it's relatively cheap for a disc this loaded) and support independent film innovators.